Faith is first trusting in the character of God. All of his promises and our expectations for those promises rest on His character. When we pray “according to his will,” our first level of prayer is simply asking for things that are aligned with his general values and principles as revealed in scripture. If God commanded a thing in scripture or if his Word calls us to a certain thing then we can always pray for it with the expectation that our prayer pleases the Father and that he is willing to do what we ask. Praying for the salvation of another person is always according to God’s will because God desires that all men should be saved. Praying for a heart that loves my enemies is according to God’s will because Jesus taught me to love my enemies. God always has a heart for those things so I can always pray for those things with an expectation that God will move in response to my prayer.

When I pray, I can expect God to act because of who God is. I must also be open to the possibility when I am praying from his general will and from my own desires that some conditions in the spiritual realm may prevent God from acting on my prayer. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t all-powerful. It means that God has sovereignly placed limitations on himself that allow men to act with free will. I may pray for a person’s salvation and God will work in that person’s life to produce faith and repentance, but ultimately, he will not force his will on that individual. Think of how many people heard Jesus preach and even saw his miracles but refused to believe. Many of the miracles were performed expressly so that men might believe in Jesus, but many still refused.

There is another level of meaning to “according to His will,” however, that allows us to pray with absolute confidence not only in the character of God but also in the outcomes. When we hear the Lord’s voice and he directs us to pray for ourselves or another person for healing, protection, provision, etc. we can pray with absolute confidence because God has already determined to do the thing. He is only waiting for us to pray so that he can release his power into that situation. Learning to hear God and taking time to hear him, even before praying, is going to increase the number of prayers we see answered and will increase our faith for answered prayers and miracles.

Many of us have prayed for miracles and have not seen them or have seen only a few. Because of that, when we do pray we have little expectation of God moving in supernatural ways in response to our prayers. However, if we would seek God in the matters of when to pray and what to pray over a situation, we would see more answers and learn to be more effective in prayer. Wise kings in the Old Testament inquired of God before going into battle. They would ask if they should fight, when they should fight, and how they should fight. God would tell them to go into battle right away or to postpone the encounter. He would also give them a strategy for the battle that insured victory.

We would do well to approach critical situations in our lives and the lives of those we pray for in the same way. As we hear from God, our prayers will be more on target and more effective. Since we are instructed to pray without ceasing, we need to have an ongoing dialogue with the Lord as well.

However, if I haven’t heard from the Lord, it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t pray. If a situation is on my heart and I know that I am praying for something that is consistent with God’s will, then I should pray as I feel led or as my experience directs me. However, if I’m not seeing the hand of God soon, I may want to press in harder and ask God to show me if there is something getting in the way of that prayer being answered. It may just be timing, but spiritual conditions may be getting in the way. For instance, before praying for healing or deliverance, we often ask a person if he is holding bitterness and unforgiveness toward someone who has wounded him. Unforgiveness gets in the way of many prayers being answered. If there is persistent, unrepented sin in the life of an individual that may also get in the way. Even curses give demons a legal right to resist the blessings of God in a person’s life so those things need to be revealed and dealt with before our prayers will have the effect that we desire and that God desires.

I don’t want to give the impression that I have all this figured out. I still jump into prayer without asking God what and how I should be praying. I still go into spiritual battle at times without inquiring of the Lord. He is gracious and frequently moves on my behalf, even when I don’t seek his counsel first. But I am growing in this area and know that hearing from God, before I pray rather than after, is the most effective way to pray and for my faith and understanding to grow.

I need to acknowledge that hearing from God is not always a clear voice in my head. Sometimes it is just a strong feeling or confirmation in my spirit or my heart that God wants to do something. I know some people with a gift of healing who see an “aura” around a person God wants to heal at that moment. Others are alerted in dreams that God wants them to pray for a certain person about a certain thing. God’s direction comes in many forms but the key is to look for that direction as we pray or, even better, before we pray. As we do faith grows. Be blessed today in all that you do.

In my previous blog, I talked about the nature of faith and, especially, the faith for miracles. One question that always comes up in relation to faith and miracles is, “How much faith is enough faith?” That question seems to be a natural response to several statements made by Jesus in the gospels regarding answers to prayer. To the Roman centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.” And the servant was healed in that hour” (Mt.8:13, RSVP). To two blind men Jesus said, “According to your faith let it be done to you.”  And their eyes were opened” (MT.9:29). In another place Jesus told his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mk.11:24).

In these verses and others, Jesus related answered prayers and miracles to the measure of faith one possessed. The question then becomes, “How much is that measure?” Is it some faith, more faith than doubt, or absolute faith that is required? Unfortunately, I think the answer is, “It depends.” For instance, there are several miracles in which a man was healed who had no faith at all because he didn’t even know who Jesus was or what he was about to do. The man born blind in the gospel of John (chapter 9) seemed to be as surprised as anyone that he was seeing. He told the leaders of the Jews that he didn’t know much about the man who healed him; he only knew that he was healed. The lame man at the pool of Bethesda (Jn.5) thought Jesus was going to help him into the water. He had no faith for healing because he wasn’t anticipating healing at the hands of Jesus – and yet he was healed. And then there was the father of the boy who had a demon that kept casting him into fire and water. When Jesus asked the man if he believed that he could heal his son, the father declared, “I do believe, help my unbelief” (Mk.9:24). Here was a man who had some faith that was mixed with some uncertainty. And yet, Jesus healed the boy.

From these examples it seems that perfect faith is not always required for answered prayer or for miracles. Indeed, I question whether we can even have “perfect” faith because as Paul argues in Romans 7, our flesh wars against our spirit. Our flesh will inject doubt and the enemy will whisper doubt even when our spirit believes. Again, I frequently find myself in the position of knowing that God can do anything but not being sure that he will act in a certain circumstance. Knowing that God wills something is not the same as knowing that he will do it in the way and in the timing I desire. God is often willing to do something but does not because the conditions have not been met for answered prayer or a miracle.

James says that we have not because we ask not. So…much of the time asking is a condition for receiving. Sometimes a significant level of faith is required because the person offering the prayer or receiving the miracle should have significant faith because of the opportunities for faith and trust that God has placed in his or her life. To whom much is given much is required. There are simply times when we should have matured in our faith but have not because we have been casual, we have quenched the Spirit, and we have persisted in unbelief. We are double-minded because we have chosen not to do the things that would help us grow in the Lord. James tells us that a double-minded man will not have his prayers answered (James 1:7). On the other hand, those new to the faith or encountering Jesus for the first time are not required to have much faith or any faith to see a miracle or have prayers answered in powerful ways.

Unrepented sin, unforgiveness, double-mindedness, idolatry, etc. can all get in the way of answered prayers and miracles. While knowing that, we must still be careful not to judge or blame someone because, at other times, the reason a miracle does not occur is simply a mystery. I know amazingly godly people who have prayed with great faith for a miracle of healing and have not received it while others with little faith and a ragged life have been healed.

That leaves me again believing that our first position of faith is always in the goodness and faithfulness of God. I can always be sure of that. My second position is an expectation that he will do the very thing I am asking because I know it is consistent with his will and nature. At the same time, I know there are mysteries that surround some circumstances so that I may not see a miracle at that moment. So what do I do in in that circumstance? I continue to trust in the goodness of God and keep praying for the miracle while I ask for a revelation of anything that is getting in the way of that prayer being answered.

In my next blog, I will share some thoughts on growing in faith. Be blessed.

I am sometimes haunted by my lack of faith and the words that Jesus spoke; “It shall be done to you according to your faith” (Mt.9:29). He actually spoke those words in several places. All serious followers of Jesus know how important faith is. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb.11:6).

So…here are my questions: How do I grow in faith? How much is enough faith? Do I have to have perfect faith for a miracle and what is faith anyway?

Lets start with my last question. What is faith? Is it complete confidence that God will answer my prayer as I have offered it? Some say yes. I have heard preachers say that you need to get in your prayer closet, pour over the Word until you get the assurance of a promise in your heart and then pray for healing, blessing, provision, etc. and it will come to you because of your faith. But is faith that drains out overnight really faith? Is faith something I can psyche myself up for and then pray while I’m in that frame of mind or is it something else? And am I praying for what I want or for what God wants?

I don’t know that I have the answers but I have some thoughts. First of all, Jesus is always our model.   He said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (Jn.5:19). Add to that, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 Jn.5:14). So Jesus asked things according to the Father’s will and he knew his specific will in different situations because he saw or comprehended what the Father wanted to do in those moments.

Let me apply that thought to healing. There are two schools of thought among those who have healing ministries. One is that God’s will is for everyone to be healed, so pray for everyone you encounter with illness or a disability. You can pray with assurance because God is good and wants everyone to be healed. The other school of thought is that God will direct you to individuals he wants to heal and then you pray for that person. You can pray with assurance because God has already shown you that he is ready to heal that individual.

Here’s my problem. I agree with both and see examples of both. There were times when it seemed that Jesus healed whoever he came across and certainly all those who came to him for healing. Then there were times when Jesus would pick one person out of a group of infirm and suffering folks waiting around a pool for healing and heal the one but not the rest. On top of that, the one he prayed for had no idea who he was and therefore had no faith for healing but was healed anyway.

So…how do I have faith for healing or any answered prayer in the midst of those seeming contradictions? First of all, I can know the general will of God from his Word. Does God support healing, provision, protection or deliverance? Of course! Those things are part of his nature. They are revealed by his names. They are also revealed in Jesus who did all those things over and over again and said that if we have seen him we have seen the Father. I can know, in general, what God approves of and supports because of his promises and his nature. So why isn’t every prayer offered according to his will answered? Is it a lack of faith on my part or the recipient’s part or something else?

I can’t always know what brings an immediate answer to prayer or what postpones that answer so how can I pray with perfect faith or even some faith about it? I think the answer is in the object of our faith. Are we expressing faith in our own faith and God’s response to it or do we have faith in the goodness and character of God regardless of what we see with our natural eyes?

I think our faith must lie in God’s goodness, his faithfulness, his mercy, and his love rather than in our own faith or some formula. Faith is confidence in the character of God and, frequently, we must live by faith and not by sight. Remember when Jesus returned to Nazareth and could heal only a few people there because of their lack of faith (Mk. 6:4)?   Was it God’s general will to heal? Yes. Did Jesus have the faith and capacity? Yes. But in this case, those who should have had faith did not believe and that kept God from extending the blessing. It’s not that the people in Nazareth had questions or some doubt, but rather they would not even open their hearts to the possibility when they knew that the God of Israel was a God of miracles.

There are conditions for answered prayers. Conditions that we are unaware of sometimes get in the way. Sometimes, unanswered or postponed prayers are mysteries. In the midst of that, I can still have faith in the goodness and faithfulness of God and know that the problem lies with my lack of understanding rather than with God. And I can ask for more understanding while I choose to trust in his character.  More on faith in my next blog. Be blessed.

I am convinced more and more that prayer should not be our effort to persuade God to fulfill a desire of our heart but rather should be our effort to discover what God’s will is for any situation and, having aligned our hearts with his purposes, to then pray God’s will over the situation. Secondly, we must give up the notion that all prayers of faith are answered instantly. Sometimes they are, but that must not become our standard for prayer. There must be an element of endurance in many, and maybe most, prayers.

Jesus said, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Mt.21:22). Believing is an ongoing, continuous kind of verb. Jesus told us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt.7:7-8). In the original language, the verb tenses for ask, seek, and knock should actually be translated, “keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking.” Somehow, in our microwave culture of instant gratification we feel like one or two really good prayers should be sufficient to get God to see things our way. When we ask, believing, we may have to continue to believe for a very long time. I listen to Christians every week who are angry with God or feel abandoned because they haven’t experienced their “answer to prayer” after praying for a few weeks or several months.

David was anointed by Samuel and promised the throne of Israel some 14 years before that promise came to pass and for most of those 14 years he was being hunted by Saul. Abraham and Sarah prayed for a child for decades before Isaac was born. Even after God told Elijah that it was going to rain, Elijah had to pray seven times before seeing any trace of a cloud. Daniel, who was highly esteemed in heaven, had to fast a pray for twenty-one days just to get some understanding of a dream. Faith for prayer needs to be faith that endures. We give up and count God as faithless too many times because the quality of endurance is not yet built into our character. Let me quote a few New Testament scriptures to underline my point:

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom.15:4, emphasis added)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (Ja. 1:2-4, emphasis added)

This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. (Rev.14:12, emphasis added)

There are numerous other verses that also call us to endurance. You must endure only if your deliverance takes a while in coming. Whether we recognize it or not, we live our lives in the midst of spiritual battle. The enemy tempts us and sows discouragement. He blinds us to what God has done in our lives and tells us that the proof of God’s love is totally contingent on us getting the one thing that we are pushing for while he opposes the answer to that prayer.   Our part is to fight and to fight in faith with prayer – sometimes for a very long while.

I like what Graham Cooke says about this. “We have to fight to receive in warfare. Too many people are willing to give up and just receive whatever they can get; a spiritual warrior contends to get the blessing God has for him. If we throw away our confidence, there is no breakthrough. The enemy knows this better than anyone which is why he constantly works to undermine the confidence of Christians…He (God) prolongs some situations in order to develop us at a much deeper level. It takes time to go deep…If the training is easy, then the player is weak” (Graham Cooke, Qualities of a Spiritual Warrior, p. 74-75).

Here is a hard truth. God is more concerned about building our character than answering our prayers. He will do both, but character gets his priority. Our challenge is to endure and continue to seek God’s will for our situation while we continue to pray with confidence. When endurance has done its work in our character then the answer to our prayer will come. God measures things by growth, not by time. When we have grown we move ahead. The time it takes is not the issue with God but the growth. We can fight him or we can join him. We can accuse him of being faithless and uncaring or we can ask him what he wants us to learn in any situation so that we may learn, grow, and then move ahead.

What have you given up on that requires endurance? You can always begin to ask again with a greater will to endure, knowing that God is always faithful – but on his timetable. God’s ways are revealed in creation. Diamonds are created when time and pressure work together. It is the same in our own lives. Be blessed today and choose to endure.

As I was browsing through some chapters in Isaiah, I was reminded of the degree to which Hezekiah is  highlighted in the Old Testament. He is given space in 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32 and also in the book of Isaiah, chapters 36-39. That is a significant amount when most of the kings of Israel received only a half column or a chapter to tell their stories. So why Hezekiah?

Hezekiah was installed as king over Judah when he was twenty-five years old. If you are not familiar with Old Testament history, shortly after Solomon’s death a civil had broken out in Israel and the nation was divided. The northern part of the nation was called Israel with Samaria as the capital and the southern part was called Judah with Jerusalem as the capital. Sometimes these two political entities were enemies and at other times they were allies. The kings of Israel built their own altars and high places for worship so that their people would not go to Jerusalem and for the most part fell quickly into idolatry.

Although Judah possessed Jerusalem and the temple, it too fell into idolatry. Ahaz was king prior to Hezekiah. He had no regard for the God of Israel. He worshipped idols and had even sacrificed some of his own sons in the fires of the pagan god Molech. In summary, the text says, “Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and took them away. He shut the doors of the Lord’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the Lord, the
God of his fathers, to anger” (2 Chr. 28:24-25).   Hezekiah was his son.

If we ever think that a son is destined to follow in the footsteps of a perverse father, Hezekiah is proof to the contrary. At the death of Ahaz, Hezekiah was installed as king. The text in 2 Chronicles says immediately, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.” David is called his father here because he reflected the character of his ancestor David rather than his biological father Ahaz. God tends to assign family trees based on the heart of a person rather than his biology. For instance, we are all sons and daughters of Abraham if we have the faith of Abraham. We too are children of David if we love God as David dud and we are children of God if we have a heart that resonates with our Heavenly Father.

It is amazing to think that within two hundred years of David and Solomon’s rule and the building of the great temple by Solomon that the center of Jewish life and culture would be closed, the priests dismissed, and the temple consigned to a state of neglect and decay. That suggests that Ahaz was not just indifferent to God or religion but actually hated the things of God which strongly suggests a demonic presence in him. His hate for the things of God and his exaltation of the demonic set Judah up for the heavy hand of God’s judgments. Ahaz only ruled for sixteen years and yet brought Judah to the brink of destruction through this godless administration. But God is full of grace for his people and had done a work in the heart of young Hezekiah. My guess his that his mother had something to do with that and probably hated the pagan God’s of Ahaz. After all, she had lost some sons to the fires of those gods.

After becoming king, his immediate responses was to reopen the temple doors, repair and sanctify the temple, restore the priesthood, and restore worship to the God of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. He also destroyed the high places of idolatrous worship. What followed was years of peace and prosperity for Judah while Israel, the northern kingdom, was destroyed by Assyria because of idolatry with most of the population being carried off into slavery.

We are going to consider several events in the life of Hezekiah in my next few blogs but one thing we see in the opening accounts of his life is the difference that one man can make for a nation for either good or bad. Although the people of Judah had no real political influence in who became king, there must have been many praying in the shelter of their homes for God to raise up a godly king so that God’s name would be honored again in Judah and his blessings restored.

From this account of Hezekiah’s beginnings we see that judgment does not always come when it is deserved. Regarding a nation, if godly leaders are in the pipeline because of the prayers of godly people, then God can restrain judgment because he longs to extend mercy and blessings whenever his people give him the opportunity through personal repentance and prayers for godliness to rule once again in a nation. In the life of an individual, the same principles apply even when that life is presently in shambles.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray and never give up (Lk.18:1) because God’s responses are not based solely on the present but also on the future and the future of God’s people rests not on present circumstances but faith and prayer for the future. So…if you are discouraged take heart and pray for the future. Even while many of the Jews were in exile in Babylon, God had the prophet Jeremiah send them a letter in which he stated, “ For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer.29:11). That is always God’s heart for his people or for nations. So, if you are discouraged or afraid…take heart and pray.

There seems to be a lot of discouragement in the Christian community these days. In the past few months we have lost cultural and legislative ground as the Supreme Court redefined marriage after thousands of years of cultural and legal precedent that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Washington and the courts have declared homosexuality to be a civil right and Christians are now under the gun if they do not serve homosexuals or honor homosexual marriage in their businesses.   The “war on Christianity” is ramping up all around the world and very few public voices are pushing back against the tide.

The question is simply do we stand up or give in? Do we stand up against the giants in the land or simply decide that they are too big for us so we must hide or at least keep a low profile. I’m talking to way too many Christians who feel hopeless about the situation and their only prayer is “come quickly Lord Jesus.” That’s not a bad prayer. In fact, it is a biblical prayer that was offered in the Book of Revelation. We all long for Jesus to come and set things right on the earth but just remember that when he returns those who have not yet named Jesus as Lord may be eternally lost. Those individuals may be some who are near and dear to you.

Secondly, those of us who feel so discouraged in the United States about the current state of the church need to look outside of the U.S. to see what God is doing in the world. Millions are coming to Jesus in unprecedented numbers in Africa, Asia and South America. God is saving, healing, and even raising the dead in numbers never seen before. When Jesus said that those who believe in him would do even greater things than he had done was speaking of this day. We can take heart in the fact that God is pushing back darkness all over the world and can still push back the darkness in America.

One of the things that seems confusing to many, however, is that some voices in the church are declaring that America is going down like the Titanic with no rescue in sight. They are declaring that we live in a post-Christian world that will now simply get worse and worse without remedy until the Lord returns. Others are declaring that God is going to release awakening or revival in the U.S. and everything will be glorious again. So which is it? I believe both may represent potential futures. I know that is not satisfying but remember that many prophecies and promises in scripture are conditional.

In Deuteronomy 28-30, God promised both peace and prosperity or oppression and hardship depending on Israel’s response to him. He declared that if Israel followed his commandments and loved him, then they would be blessed, prosperous, and at peace. If they rejected his ways then war, drought, and financial disasters would follow. Both futures were prophesied and Israel was given the responsibility to determine which it would be.

Faith also determines outcomes. God had deeded and promised Canaan to his people if they would trust him enough to enter into the land and take it from the tribes living there. One generation chose unbelief, chose never to face the giants, and never received the promise. Another generation entered by faith and took the land – giants and all. Jesus said, “May it be done to you according to your faith.” What God’s people have faith for is a determining factor in just about everything – even in America’s future.

America is not lost. If the nation “goes to hell in a hand basket” it will be because God’s church never took possession of the hand basket. Remember, our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers that are pulling the strings of presidents, judges, and congressmen. But Jesus said that the gates (authority) of hell would not prevail against his church. When David stood facing Goliath, in the eyes of the onlookers, David had no chance. But by faith he prophesied the outcome based on how he viewed his God. He declared to Saul, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1Sam.17:37). David then prophesied once again when he stood before his massive enemy. David shouted to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands (1 Sam. 17:45-47). Then David did just what he declared he would do by the power of God.

We face a swaggering, boastful giant with multiple heads. But we serve the same God that David served and should now be declaring victory for the church (i.e. the righteousness of God and exaltation of Christ) in America in the name and power of the Lord as we pray and speak. By faith we should declare God’s sovereignty and victory instead of declaring doom and defeat over God’s people. We must bless the church and not curse it with predictions of failure. We have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim.1:7). The fear that we feel is not from the Lord and we must reject that spirit. We should not fear the enemy, he should fear us because Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, has all authority in heaven and on earth, and is willing to exercise that authority when his people ask, declare, and stand in faith.

America will be retaken for Christ in the courts of heaven before we see it manifested in the courts of men. That will happen when we offer up bold prayers of faith and declare God’s victory over evil in this nation and do so until we see that victory with our own eyes. Don’t be afraid; be bold. Remember that Jesus said, “I have overcome the world,” and in him we too are more than conquerors. Be bold and confident today. Pray boldly, speak with confidence, and live like one who has the eternal, all powerful God dwelling in your heart!

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor.2:14

This blog is essentially dedicated to expressions of power in the life of the church and the preaching of the gospel. When we think of “power evangelism” we think of men and women coming to Christ after a dramatic healing, prophetic word, or deliverance. Those are certainly legitimate expressions of power and usually accompanied the preaching of the gospel throughout the New Testament. But there is also another kind of power that needs to be displayed in the day to day grind of bringing someone we know and love to the cross when he or she seems to be almost inoculated against belief.

In Paul’s statement above, he clearly states that a man without the Spirit cannot understand the things that come from the Spirit. He doesn’t say that the man without the Spirit is stubborn or chooses not to understand; he says that man cannot understand. In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul adds to that thought. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor.4:3-4). So Paul tells us that without the operation of the Spirit a man cannot even understand spiritual things because the devil has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.

Before a man or woman can truly come to the Lord, he or she must experience a paradigm shift in their view of the world, of themselves, or of God. That shift in thinking is called repentance. Dutch Sheets makes an interesting observation about this shift in a person’s worldview. “The perspective of unbelievers is distorted. People run from the pursuit of a God who is desiring to save them from destruction. Those of us who know him realize we love God because he first loved us. When sinners, however, hear of a loving God who wants only their best and died to provide it, they often see instead only the promise of loss and a lack of fulfillment” (Intercessory Prayer, p.171).

For some, the shift in perspective about God comes through a dramatic moment of healing, near death experiences, or some other encounter with Jesus that, like Saul on the way to Damascus,   jars the individual into a different view of Jesus. But what about all the rest? Two things need to happen. First of all, the veil or their distorted view of God needs to be removed and a revelation of Jesus needs to penetrate the heart of the unbeliever. When we talk people into a salvation prayer there is often no revelation and, therefore, no real change of mind – no genuine repentance – so their walk with the Lord is short-lived.

Power evangelism needs to be exercised in many cases through powerful prayers specifically targeting the strongholds (false beliefs and distorted views including pride, self-sufficiency, fear, distrust, unworthiness, etc.) of those we are trying to reach. Arguments, pressure, guilt, fear, and even logical presentations of the gospel will rarely bring about a lifting of the veil and the revelation needed for true repentance. The answer is found in God’s divine weapons spoken of in 2 Corinthians 10. These weapons have divine power to bring down strongholds, silence the enemy, and direct the power of the Spirit to release revelation and faith.

There are times when our prayers need to look like spiritual warfare in which we command and bind the enemy in a person’s life, call on angels to keep the enemy at bay, declare God’s word over that person, ask the Spirit to hover over that individual to release revelation and birth faith, and ask Jesus to orchestrate encounters that will bring about a change of mind and heart. That is where the work and the wrestling need to be done rather than in the natural realm where we tend to use pressure and persuasion. There is tremendous power in prayer and battles for souls are fought and won in that realm because our struggle is not against flesh and blood. That kind of prayer is also power evangelism.

Before sharing our faith, we usually need to till the soil of a person’s heart so that the word might take root. That tilling will be done through powerful and persistent prayers that bring the resources of heaven to bear on that person and his or her heart. Often we have prayed for God to save someone but have not truly entered into the battle ourselves with our persistent and specific prayers. Remember, God will do more things with us than for us. Join in and see what God does for those you are trying to reach.

When his disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he began with a relatively revolutionary idea – Our Father in heaven. For the most part, Jewish theological thought viewed God as the one whose name should not be spoken and whose presence in the Holy of Holies was as dangerous as it was glorious. He was seen as the Holy Judge of all the earth and the destroyer of the enemies of Israel. He was the thunder and flame on Sinai and the earthquake swallowing up the sons of Korah.

But Jesus spoke to the Father in familiar and intimate terms and encouraged every believer to do the same. That must have been a difficult paradigm shift for many. It still is. One of the great hindrances to receiving the promises and the power of the Holy Spirit is our view of God. When we ask God for healing, deliverance, favor, provision, and protection we often ask with a minimal expectation – more of a hope than a confident request. That presents a real dilemma when we know that whatever we ask for, believing that we have received it, will be ours (see Mark 11:24).  We hope he will answer our petitions, but we are not always confident that he will and that is a formula for few answered prayers.

Many of us have a difficult time believing that our Heavenly Father is willing, able, and eager to bless us, heal us, and deliver us from the power of the enemy. We still view him as a God who keeps careful records and who weighs our good moments against our bad to see if we have earned enough points to merit an answered prayer. We see him as a Father whose love is conditional, who is beyond understanding, and who may well visit pain and suffering on us to “perfect our spirituality.

So we pray, hoping for the best but not really expecting it. When we are sick we pray for healing but wonder if God actually wants us to be ill so that our faith in suffering glorifies him, purifies our soul, or has a purpose beyond our understanding. When we live with emotional pain and brokenness from our own bad choices we may see God as the Father who sternly remarks, “You made your bed, now you can lie in it.” Myriads of believers simply view their Heavenly Father as a distant replica of an earthly father who made promises he couldn’t keep, whose primary emotion was anger, or who was loving one day while distant and unpredictable the next.

When we have a mixed view of our Heavenly Father it is difficult to pray with faith or to pray at all. But prayer is the very thing that opens the valve so that the promises and the power of heaven can flow to us and through us. If we view God as distant, angry, or conditional then we will not pray at all (there’s no point in asking) or we will pray as if we have to convince, coerce, or nag God into blessing us.

So how do we understand this God who seems angry and vengeful in the Old Testament but is called “Abba” in the New Testament? John goes so far as to say that God is love and God is light. The key is Jesus. No matter how we understand the Old Testament or what kind of father we had on earth, Jesus clearly stated that when we have seen him we have seen the Father in heaven (see Jn.14:9).  If you want to know how much you are loved by the Father, look at the cross. If you want to know how God will deal with your sinful past, look at the Samaritan woman of John 4 and the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Ask yourself how many times Jesus turned down people who came to him for healing and how he dealt with Peter after Peter denied and abandoned Jesus in his hour of suffering.

According to Hebrews, Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory (the part of God’s goodness we can see) and the exact representation of the Father’s being (Heb. 1:3). When you see the heart of Jesus toward the broken and the suffering you see the heart of the Father. When you see the compassion of Christ toward the spiritually clueless you see the Father. When you see the anger and frustration of Jesus toward those who would deny the healing of God for the sick or who would drive sinners away rather than embrace them, you have seen the Father as well. The cross has allowed the love of God to overpower the judgment of God. And God is glad.

When you pray for the power of heaven to be released on your behalf, remember that the heart of the Father toward you is the same as the heart of Jesus. As loving fathers and mothers, we are not always so different from our heavenly Father. I always want the best for my children. When they were young and tumbled off their bikes, I ran to pick them up and bandaged their wounds. When they were afraid I comforted them. When they were confused I taught them. When they were in danger I protected them. When they laughed I laughed with them and when they did wrong I corrected them. All those things were motivated by love and, like most parents, I would have died to save my children.

Our heavenly Father did just that and is much more the loving Father and Mother than we could ever hope to be. When you pray, you can be certain that your Father in heaven is hearing and acting on your behalf. We can’t always know why we don’t see some prayers answered. There are mysteries yet to be understood. But we can always know the heart of our Heavenly Father toward us. If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. If you have seen the cross you have seen his heart for you. Reflect on Jesus and his heart before you offer your next prayer. God is soooooooo for you!

In this Psalm, David makes some astounding claims regarding God’s protection for those who maintain an intimate relationship with him. In the current spiritual environment of America these claims would seem outlandish, boastful, and even presumptuous. Listen to what David says: He (God) will save you from the fowler’s snare, from deadly pestilence, from any terror that stalks at night, from arrows aimed at you, from stumbling, and from lions and cobras. He says that even though a thousand may fall at your side or ten thousand and your right hand, you will be kept safe from disaster, disease, and attacks. David declares that God will even assign angels to protect you in the midst of danger and crisis. For the most part, our culture – even today’s Christian culture – does not seem to view God and his personal involvement in our lives in the same way David viewed it.

Perhaps, our first thought is that David is using the literary device of hyperbole or exaggeration to make his point. But lets think about it. How many literal, biblical accounts are there of God providing miraculous protection for those in battle: the Red Sea crossing, the Jericho campaign, Joshua leading Israel in numerous battles against their enemies in the promised land (when Israel was faithful), Gideon’s unlikely but overwhelming victories, David taking down Goliath, Samson killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, David’s multiple miraculous escapes from Saul, one angel taking out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers camped around Jerusalem, Elijah taking on 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mt. Carmel, and hundreds of other accounts where the supernatural power of God protected his people in battle and gave them victory.   But does God still do that?

I have a friend who served in Vietnam and during the war his platoon was ordered to move into a village. On the outskirts of the village, a small shed came under fire as a possible outpost for enemy snipers. My friend said that they fired numerous rockets at the shed that kept inexplicably veering off and so they overran the shed, kicked open the door and found a Christian mother and her children hiding there, huddled in prayer. If you ask my friend he will tell you that Psalm 91 still paints possibilities for today.

We could continue to talk about angelic warnings and deliverance for God’s people from all kinds of threats throughout scripture including shutting the mouths of lions and protecting men from the flames in the book of Daniel. We could talk about the venomous serpent that attached itself to Paul’s arm without injury in the book of Acts. The truth is, from Genesis to Revelation there are numerous accounts of God’s intervention in the lives of men and women that parallel the claims of David in Psalm 91.

Some of that supernatural intervention simply flows out of God’s grace but one statement made by Jesus also sets a condition on some of that intervention. “Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you” (Mt.9:29). In other words, to the extent that we expect the intervention of God, we will receive it. David echoes that thought in Psalm 91. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust” (Ps.91:2). The rest of the Psalm is really a confirmation of David’s faith and a declaration that because of the love and care that flowed from the Father toward David, God would certainly protect him from his enemies, from plague, and even from wild animals.

I don’t believe David was born with that certainty but his history with God began to write that certainty on his heart. Before facing Goliath, David reflected on moments when, as a shepherd boy, God had delivered him from a lion and a bear. Upon reflection, David realized that he had not overcome those threats through his own brilliance and strength but that God had supernaturally intervened to save him. Part of our problem is the absence of reflection and meditation in our lives. Long days and nights alone in secluded pastures provided David with a lifestyle that encouraged reflection, introspection, and an ongoing conversation with the Father – since there was no one else to talk to. We might do well to intentionally seek out evenings or occasional days of solitude with the Father ourselves to intentionally reflect on his character and to look back to map his hand and his faithfulness in our lives.

It is important to notice that David declared God’s faithfulness and protection over his life on a regular basis. In doing so, he wrote that truth more deeply on his heart each time he spoke it or wrote it. As we begin to align our thoughts and hearts with God, we should also declare, write, and memorize the Word of God as it declares the truth we need to write on our heart. As we do so, the paradigm of God’s love, care, and faithfulness will begin to function as the lens through which we view life allowing us to see God’s care and protection daily in both big and small ways which, in turn will strengthen our faith. Intentional thinking, speaking, and acting are the keys to faith and faith is the key to unlock the promises of God. Let me encourage you to personalize Psalm 91 placing your name in the text, meditating on its application to your life, and memorizing all or sections of it so that faith in a day of uncertainty can stand on the same promises on which David stood. Be blessed.

We have just spent my last four blogs looking at Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones. I want to connect that text with prayer. The apostle Paul tells us, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom.15:4, ESV).   In other words, when we study Old Testament scriptures, they have been included so that we might learn something significant for ourselves and our spiritual life. What we learned from Ezekiel 37 is that the Word of God has power to produce life even when it is declared by human tongues.

Too often we have defined prayer as simply asking God to do things we cannot do but there is more. Prayer is also a time for praise and worship, a time for sharing the thoughts of our hearts, a time for asking God what is on his heart, and a time for joining the Father in accomplishing his will by making declarations of faith and authority over people and situations that need his touch.

What is dead or dying in your personal universe? I want to encourage you as part of your prayer life to begin to declare the Word of God over that situation using the very words of Ezekiel crafted to fit your prayer. For instance, let’s say you have a son and daughter-in-law whose marriage is on the verge of failure. You might begin to pray and declare, “Dry bones of Ben and Marie’s marriage… hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to this marriage: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will restore love and life to your marriage and make it live again. I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O Spirit , and breathe into this dying marriage, that it may live.”

Ezekiel tells us that after his declaration of God’s word over the desolation of the valley the following was the result. “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.” Praying and declaring the very word of God over a person or a situation is very powerful. Sometimes results come in a moment but in most instances persistence will be needed.

I want to quote from Dutch Sheets book, Intercessory Prayer, to make this point. “ John Killinger tells about an interesting method used in the past to break a wild steed by harnessing it to a burro. The powerful steed would take off across the range, twisting and bucking, causing the burro to be tossed about wildly. What a sight. The steed would run away, pulling the burro alongside, and they would drop out of sight – sometimes for days. Then they would return, with the proud little burro in charge. The steed had worn himself our, fighting the presence of the burro. When he became too tired to fight anymore, the burro assumed the position of leader. And that’s the way it is many times with prayer. Victory goes to the persistent, not to the angry; to the dedicated, not to those who can provide great demonstrations of emotion and energy. We need committed, determined, systematic prayer, not once on a while fireworks.” It’s not that righteous anger and fireworks aren’t appropriate at times, but consistent, faith-filled, dedicated, on-target prayer wins the battle more often.

I sense that there are a few who read this blog that have given up on a situation of “dry bones” close to them. I want to encourage you to begin again. You know what God’s will is for the situation, so begin to pray and declare God’s word over that situation believing that when God’s word goes forth it fulfills its purpose. Believe. Declare. Persist. We are often thrilled at the exploits of men of faith in the Old Testament as they waded into battle and won great victories against overwhelming odds – David and Goliath, Gideon, Jonathan and his armor bearer, and so forth. These were furious fights that lasted for a few hours or a day. But many other battles (probably most) were won by laying siege to a city, cutting off supply lines, and attacking one section of wall day after day in strategic intervals until it crumbled. Persistent, systematic prayer cuts off the supply lines of the enemy and brings down walls that a furious fight for a few hours can’t topple. Begin again and be blessed in Him.